STARTING OUT

Northwest Airlines serves Aberdeen, South Dakota. We rented a car at the airport and set out to explore northeast South Dakota. We visited a rectangular area fifty miles by seventy-five miles using four points of reference, Aberdeen, Sisseton, Watertown and Redfield, South Dakota. On this journey we saw what Laura Ingalls Wilder lovingly described in her Little House book series, plus scenes painted by Harvey Dunn. Both people are products of South Dakota's beautiful prairie grasslands.

The winters are cold here, so the most enjoyable visit will be during the spring and summer months. Autumn is also a glorious time with waving fields of golden grain waiting to be harvested.

This virgin prairie was violated with geometric shapes following passage of the Homestead Act in the late 1800s. Here is "where the buffalo roamed" in an old song from years ago. Settlers came, whereupon the buffalo munched their last bites and roamed farther westward, soon to be hunted almost to extinction.

This is farming and ranching country. Before you allow anyone to use the words in a pejorative manner, ask them to do it while eating breakfast. All food begins in the soil at places called farms and ranches.

City dwellers are accustomed to going around the block for an ice cream cone. Here you may have to drive several miles to find one. To put the region in context, imagine your city block spread out over six counties. All the amenities and services are available, just farther apart from one another.

South Dakota has five kinds of roads, the interstates, U.S. highways, state highways, county roads and township roads. All except the interstates were made to fit the section lines where possible. Interstates go via the most direct route to cross the country in a hurry. You notice a big surprise in your rearview mirror while driving in this area. Most of the time no automobiles are there, nor up ahead. Just like in the new car commercials, you are all alone on the road.

Stop the car. Turn off the motor. Get out and listen. You hear absolute silence, punctuated by the call of birds or the cackling of a pheasant and the soft rustle of wind through prairie grass. Take a deep breath. That's the heady perfume of open country. Pollution has been left far behind in the big cities.

Be careful. You will find large farm machinery moving along all roads except the intestate highways. They travel at fifteen miles per hour at full throttle and will move over to the shoulder where possible to allow traffic to pass.

Every bit of the country has been laid out in one-mile square plots that depicted one section of land, 640 acres. From the air this region looks like a checkerboard because the sections are defined by north-south and east-west lines. Township roads follow the section lines and create that consistent set of squares observed by the airline traveler.

GOING WHERE NICOLLET WENT

The first leg of our trip let us see South Dakota the way an early map maker saw it. Near Sisseton is a geographical feature that was named by Joseph Nicollet. He was a French scientist who mapped the land between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in 1838-39. One of his favorite locations was this rise in the earth. He called it "Coteau des Prairies," French words that mean "Prairie Hills."

The route we chose departed Aberdeen and went north on U.S. Highway 281 for twenty miles. We turned right and traveled east on South Dakota Highway 10 toward Sisseton. About twelve miles along this highway we passed through the Sand Lake Wildlife Refuge. The area surrounding Sand Lake National Wildlife Refuge was once a vast, rolling grassland pierced by the James River flowing south to the Missouri River.

Settlers arrived in 1887 and began changing the landscape. Farming and grazing ruined the wildlife habitat. By the 1930s waterfowl was nearly nonexistent. Then Congress established Sand Lake in 1935 to preserve this critical habitat for nesting and migrating waterfowl. Every year thousands of ducks, geese and other migratory birds stop and feed on these 21,498 acres of refuge.

If you take an interest in hunting the birds you see here, go on a little ways to a half mile east of the junction with SD Highway 37. You will see a stately mansion on a slight rise to the south side of the road. It is the 12 Gauge Lodge.

You can check in and stay there. They furnish meals and provide private rooms, plus an eighteen bed dorm. You can hunt on the 20,000 acres of the Dakota Hunting Farms located between Hecla, South Dakota and Ludden, North Dakota. Their guides have been hunters all their lives and grew up in the area. Dakota Hunting Farms train all their own dogs.

Twenty five miles east of Sand Lake Refuge is the town of Britton, founded in 1884 and named for Colonel Isaac Britton. He was general manager of the Dakota and Great Southern Railroad.

Turn left at Main Street in Britton and visit Prayer Rock Museum in the first block, second house on your left. Inside is a large stone inscribed with Indian markings. Beside it is a tepee. In the basement there is a magnificent display of tools and machines used by early settlers.

If you like old cars and tractors you'll find them one-half block west of the only stop sign in Britton. Jim Miles has 35 examples collected over the past 30 years. His oldest is a 1908 REO automobile. REO is the abbreviation for Mr. Ransom Eli Olds. Miles' newest prize is a 1957 Edsel.

A dozen miles east of Britton you come to Fort Sisseton on the south side of SD Highway 10. A five hour guided walking tour will show you the area's wildlife and geology. When first constructed in 1864 it was called Fort Wadsworth and renamed Fort Sisseton in 1876, taking the name of the local Indian tribe. Originally built to quell Indian uprisings, the last action was seen in 1879 when a detachment of soldiers and one officer were dispatched to protect settlers along the James River.

Here are some thoughts about the Coteau des Prairies. About 11,600 years ago the last ice age melted. Imagine if you will during the next really big snow storm that the North Pole has decided to slip southward as far as the Missouri River. That is about what happened. It was called the Late Wisconsin Ice Age.

This is how monstrously thick ice was formed that covered all of Canada and much of the northern United States. More snow fell than could possibly melt. It accumulated daily. All that snow compressed the deepest layers into ice. After about a hundred feet of ice had built up, the bottom was under considerable pressure. Then it became plastic and flexible, like thick molasses. People, automobiles and pollution can not be held responsible for this epic event.

There already existed a huge geographical feature in eastern South Dakota that was not fully covered by all that ice. This wedge-shaped Coteau des Prairies starts around Sioux Falls and extends barely over the North Dakota border to the town of Geneseo, a few miles north of Sisseton. The east to west distance across it is 130 miles at the thickest portion. North to south is 250 miles. Its top is about 1000 feet higher than the surrounding terrain.

As the ice melted, water from the Coteau des Prairies began to flow into three major river systems on the continent. Northbound the water finds the Red River and empties into Hudson Bay. Water going east enters the Mississippi River and finally the Gulf of Mexico. Those streams to the west of the Coteau flow to the James River that feeds the Missouri River.

The entire Coteau wedge is dotted with fresh-water lakes teeming with fish.

Ten more miles to the east is Nicollet Tower which honors the explorer. It is a monument seventy-five feet tall made of Douglas fir. The tower offers a good view of the wonderful prairie that Nicollet admired so much.

Joseph N. Nicollet writing of his impressions of the Coteau des Prairies in 1839 said this: "May I not be permitted in this place to introduce a few reflections on the magical influences of the prairies? . . . I pity the man whose soul could remain unmoved under such a scene of excitement." Climb the Nicollet tower and you'll agree with him.

The town of Sisseton is down the hill toward the east a few miles. You may eat lunch there at several places along Highway 10; American Hearth, Jackson's, Lakeland Steak House or West End Grille.

GOING TO WATERTOWN VIA THE INTERSTATE

We wanted to get down out of the glacial lake country and see what the flat land looked like, so we took I-29 south from Sisseton to Watertown. Traveling the interstate is done when you want to go someplace uninterrupted. You can enjoy the scenery of course, but it whisks on past in a blur. Gazing in wonderment at a thousand cattle grazing on yonder hillside is not easily done on the interstate.

GLOOMY PAINTINGS IN A PRETTY BUILDING

Exiting the interstate and joining U.S. Highway 212 westbound, we found the Redlin Art Center close by on the south side of the road. It is Watertown's proudest sight to see, recommended to all tourists and natives alike.

Here is how the center came into being. It is said as a young man Terry Redlin wanted to be a Forest Ranger, loved animals and wanted to work in the outdoors. Then one day he took his first ride on a motorcycle, on the back with a friend. There was a crash and his legs were crippled. This put a stop to any thought of being a Forest Ranger and he studied to be an artist.

Redlin succeeded mightily as an artist and was granted great acclaim by the art world. His work sold easily and he wanted to share his good fortune with humanity. Redlin decided to build and donate an art center to his hometown, Watertown, South Dakota.

One hundred original Redlin paintings are on display in the Redlin Art Center. The gift shop has prints for sale, for a couple hundred dollars. Smaller ones are in the fifty to seventy-five dollar range. Trinkets, knickknacks and books are also available. There is a guided tour and a theater presentation.

When you visit the center you find an impressive building. Inside you get a singular impression of the paintings. They are all the same, like those bullfighter scenes on velvet sold on the streets just across the Rio Grande River in Mexico. American tourists buy those velvet prints to prove they been there.

What you see in Redlin's work is a captivating blend of reds that form stupendous sunsets. The sun is always setting in his paintings. There are indigenous South Dakota animals in all the paintings, pheasants taking flight, deer peering from the woods, ducks and geese sitting or just taking flight. All this seems to represent Terry Redlin's love of the outdoors and his feeling of impending doom. The sun did set in his life and darkness came upon his dream of being a Forest Ranger.

After the Art Center, go to lunch at the Perkins Restaurant a little ways to the west on Highway 212. You'll find it across the parking lot from a forty-foot cowboy statue. He stands there with his saddle in hand, staring into the distance. No doubt his horse has abandoned him at a full gallop.

Perkins' food is consistently good. The attendants are gracious and friendly. You are greeted by a hostess who sits you amid spacious tables. She works behind a counter that sells take-out pies and pastries.

Lunch here will leave you with a welcome taste in your mouth after punishing your feet walking through the Redlin Art Center.

Leaving Watertown we began a trip through the heart of intensive farming, following U.S. Highway 212 westward to Redfield. These properties were homesteaded by immigrants mainly from Germany and Scandinavia. Many of the farms are owned by descendants of the original settlers. It is definitely not a place ruled by "Corporate Farms," whatever that means.

Every town and village has several Catholic and Lutheran churches. Their presence reflects the strong moral and family values of these people. They deal fairly with each other. The philosophy hereabouts is this. You can lie once and cheat once. After that your word is fractured.

Here are the 1997 agriculture statistics for counties visited. We determined that the average income for six counties we was just a little over fifty dollars per acre. Corporate income was a very small percentage. Some numbers are rounded to the nearest million or thousands.

Brown county, 1,000,000 acres in production, average size of individual farm 1,000 acres.

Total net income $49,000,000, net corporate income $5,000,000, 1% of total.

Clark county, 514,000 acres in production, average size of individual farm 913 acres. Total net income $20,000,000, net corporate income $496,000, 2% of total.

Codington county, 384,000 acres in production, average size of individual farm 621 acres. Total net income $28,000,000, net corporate income $4,000,000, 14% of total.

Marshall county, 504,000 acres in production, average size of individual farm 1,000 acres. Total net income $19,000,000, net corporate income $3,000,000, 15% of total.

Roberts county, 570,000 acres in production, average size of individual farm 711 acres. Total net income $28,000,000, net corporate income $1,000,000, 3% of total.

Spink county, 849,000 acres in production, average size of individual farm 1,000 acres. Total net income $52,000,000, net corporate income $4,000,000, 7% of total.

The soil discovered by the early immigrants is deep, fertile loam. This dark, arable earth was laid down by the glacier described when we visited Nicollet Tower back at Sisseton. While the original colonists on the east coast of America found their land covered by forests, this area was carpeted with waist-high prairie grass. Buffalo and wild game loved it. Just as the forest was hewn away to make way for planting in the east, these virgin grasslands were plowed up by the settlers. Some of the original unplowed prairie still exists, but it is hard to find.

The wisdom of trees was evident back in the 1930s when much of the topsoil began to be moved state to state by forceful winds, after prolonged dry weather had changed plowed fields into powdery dust. Smart people started planting shelter belts. They are narrow groves of trees sometimes a mile long. Today they hold back the wind and make a convenient sanctuary for birds and wild game.

Following Highway 212 we got down close and personal amongst the farms.

You will find county roads paved. Township roads are not. They are mostly narrow, almost single lane and made of gravel, used to get from farm to farm and from field to field. To visit a farm you usually have to drive down a township road. There is not much worry about getting lost. All the roads and byways are laid out in a square. Remember the east-west and north-south section lines. Either turn around where you are and backtrack or make two left turns and you will come back to the main thoroughfare.

First thing you notice driving through this country is the distance between farm houses. There they sit a long way from the highway and at least a mile from each other, usually on the corner of a section, i.e., 640 acres.

Most old farm houses are at least two story with a basement and painted white. You will get the impression they were erected a century ago. Many were built by the original homesteaders who originally lived in a sod shack in most cases. They dug a hole in the ground and fashioned blocks of sod one foot by two feet like Eskimoes make igloos out of ice blocks.

The original settlers dug surface wells and took water from creeks and the James River if they were close by. Later on wells were put down as deep as one thousand feet to tap into artesian water. Then the farms began to enjoy continually running water.

As you drive down township and county roads, you will notice most fields are fenced. That allows the farmer to turn his cattle into cornfields after harvest to pick at food not gathered by harvesting machinery.

Next to many old farm houses is a faded red barn, leaning and sagging, just about to collapse it seems. Barns you see represent a style of farming from long, long ago when real horses were used for horsepower. You notice all barns are at least two story with a little door up near the peak of the roof. That is the door through which hay was shoved as it was harvested from the hayfield. It stayed in the barn loft until feeding time when it was shoved down into each horse's stall.

What you see now are metal sheds where big tractors and farm machinery are kept, stored, fixed and serviced. The sheds are erected upon concrete pads, not unlike industrial buildings you see in town.

Sitting near old barns are silos, cylinders fifty feet tall and twenty feet diameter. They are filled with silage made by grinding mature corn, ears -- stalks and everything.

Silage can be found in trenches a hundred feet long dug in the ground and covered by dirt. It will remain usable for ten years this way. The mixture is also kept in above-ground, concrete bunkers, used more immediately. Silage is ground with a mixture of corn and oats for cattle feed. You will see a pen of cattle where there is a long feeding trough along one side of the pen. Ground feed is poured into the trough from a feed wagon twice a day, formulated by the farmer to enhance fattening.

It takes about ninety days to fatten two-year-old steers and heifers. Steers are bull calves with their physiology altered. Heifers for fattening are kept away from breeding stock.

Breeding stock will be mother cows that are productive ten or twelve years. They are turned into pasture in the spring, in the ratio twenty five of them with one bull. See a hundred mother cows and look closely, there will be four happy bulls milling about and grazing with them.

Calves are born in the spring and weaned in the fall, kept on grass two years then fattened for market.

Many farms have round metal bins nearly as tall as silos for storing grain, usually corn or soybeans. They are thirty feet tall, twenty feet across. You see as many as a dozen of those on a farm. Look closely. It represents money in the bank for the farmer, because he can hold grain there until the price is right.

Thirty-two miles west of Watertown on highway 212 we came to Clark, South Dakota, population 1300. It is a small town with a very big claim. A sign proclaims it to be the Potato Capitol of South Dakota. The dominate business of Clark is McCain Foods which makes chips and other potato products.

About twenty-five miles west of Clark you come to Doland, population around 300 people. You might pass right on through without a glance unless you knew the state nearly had a president who was born here. Hubert H. Humphrey (1911-1978) was Vice President under Lyndon B. Johnson (1965-1969), then ran for President and lost.

You find Humphrey's boyhood home by turning left at the gas station, going one block south, then turn left again for another block. The house is on the corner marked with a sign.

Ten more miles west on highway 212 is Frankfort, South Dakota, with a population of 192 people is a neat, clean little village half a mile south of Highway 212 where it makes a long curve ten miles east of Redfield. It is one of those towns in this region where cultivated fields begin at the edge of unfenced backyards, a very quiet place with single-family dwellings. You can hear the crickets snoring. No howling dogs break the peace.

Approaching it you see one tall landmark, the South Dakota Wheat Grower's Association grain elevator sitting alongside the old railroad tracks. The railroad brought the elevator and town into being, then departed. Now grain is hauled away by eighteen wheel, semi-trailer trucks.

One of the oldest structures in the village is a barber shop built in 1902 as a bank. Some time after the bank failed, it became a beverage package store selling beer, wine and whiskey. This fifteen feet by twenty feet little building is painted white and is snuggled against a tree much taller than it is. The tree seems to be standing as a sentinel over its historic old friend. One window with no curtains stares out the front The traditional barber pole is to the left of the window. Above that, centered on front of the building is a sign that says it is Dean's Barber Shop. There on the right side is the entrance door.

First thing you notice upon entering is the floor. It is buckled and raised dramatically in the center and slopes off to the right. The floor is made of three inch wide hardwood strips and looks like it was polished years ago with tobacco juice stomped in by cowboy boots.

There are six modern waiting chairs with half a dozen antique folding wooden chairs leaning against the wall, but only one barber chair. Dean Robinson runs a one man operation, cutting hair and sweeping up, taking out the trash and entertaining visitors. There is no shoeshine stand. Looking at the far back wall you see a counter with shelves that were used when it was a beverage store. Now barber oils and ointments desired by customers rest there.

Robinson is a slender, muscular man in his 60s with a quick smile and a good sense of humor. He still has a full head of naturally curly hair and wears cowboy boots. Robinson has been cutting hair for a long time and farmed until recently. Now he only barbers, working two days a week during winters.

All spring and summer the place is not open in the daytime. You have to wait until dark to get a haircut, probably because his clientele are farmers who work during the day.

Robinson's farm begins one mile west of Frankfort and extends to the east bank of the James River, just about where the old stagecoach barn was before the railroad came through.

Across the river is Fisher's Grove State Park. This piece of land was patented to Frank I. Fisher in the late 1800s. His arrival in the area showed determination. Fisher came down the James River in a canvas canoe from Jamestown in the late spring of 1878.

Fisher thought this location where the river makes a dramatic U-turn would be a good place for a town. Eventually Frankfort, sort of named for him, sprang up some three miles to the east.

A hotel and stage barn constructed of sod operated on the east side of the river at Fisher's Grove starting in 1879 to serve the stage line running from Watertown to Pierre. It was closed when the railroad came through the little town three miles east.

The town was originally named Frank's Ford honoring the crossing place at Fisher's Grove. When the town filed for a post office with the name Frankford, clumsy bureaucrats in Washington listed it as Frankfort. Thus the town's name was born.

Regarding peace and quiet, with no howling dogs, one waiting customer in the barber shop said, "Well, perhaps some of them hum."

The barber corrected him and said it was cats purring, like a peaceful town should sound.

"This old building has seen holdups, shootouts and posses in its day." Robinson grinned and added, "Some of the polish on the floor was caused by tears shed during bankruptcies and foreclosures when it was a bank."

GUMBO SAG

Two or three miles west of Fisher's Grove State Park is a well-known geographic feature familiar to everyone in Spink County. It's difficult to ignore. Natives call it Gumbo Sag.

No matter what anybody does upstream, runoff will overwhelm property owners downstream. That happened recently to Harold Brink's farm. It straddles Highway 212 five miles east of Redfield, South Dakota. The farm passed down from his grandfather, Fred Brink, to his father, Victor Brink, and on into the hands of Harold Brink.

Along the highway is a really big puddle called Gumbo Sag. Topping the hill and seeing it for the first time, people traveling through here might think they're about to drive into a lake. Even though the waters have not receded since the big snow during the winter of 1996-97, the highway has yet to be flooded. High winds, of course, will cause the water to make juicy forays onto the shoulders, barely tasting the pavement edge. This must make brave souls keep up their cruising speed while fearing they are about to be deluged by the waters of Gumbo Sag.

That water begins about four miles south of the highway and flows downhill going north to the James River. Standing water may create a temporary lake four miles long and a half mile wide in some places.

How did this prehistoric stream bed get here and why was it called Gumbo Sag? Well, lets go back to the name "gumbo" probably given to such soil when the French explorer Joseph Nicollet first surveyed this region. Between 1836 and 1840 he created one of the most important American maps of the 19th Century and the earliest accurate map of the interior of North America, from St. Louis north to the Canadian Border, and west along the Missouri River. Early surveyors may have called the sticky soil hereabouts by the Creole word "gumbo."

This word "gumbo" literally means okra and is used down south in Louisiana and along the Gulf Coast to order a soup dish thickened with okra pods, usually made with tomatoes, vegetables and chicken, ham or seafood.

Some people do not like to eat okra. They say it is slimy and sticky, perhaps like gumbo soil. Gumbo the soup is considered by many folks to be a staple, especially those who speak with the Creole accent, real down-home people who talk with round-mouthed very sweet voices heard on the streets of New Orleans.

In South Dakota the word gumbo describes that sticky soil of the Western prairies that has the nasty habit of getting really gummy when wet. It is said that if you stick by gumbo soil in dry weather it will stick to you during wet times. Plant life such as wheat seems to thrive just fine in gumbo soil, thank you very much indeed.

Now that we know how Gumbo Sag got to be called that, how did the depression get hewn out of the earth that allows overflow to cause Harold Brink's farm so much distress? His farm is in Lodi Township and It must be stated in all fairness that the Lodi Township Board has set many culverts to help the water get on its merry way to the James River. The Board also built up township roads so they will be above the surface of any waves desiring to lap at tractor wheels on their way to the field.

Gumbo Sag qualifies as one of South Dakota's wetlands. These places are mostly referred to as "prairie potholes." They are natural depressions in the landscape, courtesy of retreating glaciers some 12,000 years ago.

These wet South Dakota potholes vary in size from a fraction of an acre to hundreds of acres. Those Ice Age events left nearly 25 million depressions in a region of 300,000 square miles covering portions of five north-central states and three Canadian provinces. In South Dakota the wetlands like Gumbo Sag are found east and north of the Missouri River. Just over two million acres of surface water covers eastern South Dakota. It is found in three forms, ponds, lakes and rivers.

Marshes and sloughs like Gumbo Sag are usually less than twenty acres and not more than six feet deep. They are seasonal and hold water only temporarily. The longer Gumbo Sag's water remains, however, the more it could be called a river, or at least a creek.

Wetlands, such as Gumbo Sag, help the water cycle when water percolates into the ground and helps maintain the water table. They also act as natural filters by capturing

sediment, neutralizing some contaminants and purifying water. That works to improve the water quality of neighboring rivers and lakes.

Places like Gumbo Sag are the home of many kinds of wildlife. In addition to ducks, you might find fish, many kinds of birds, and a few other examples of exotic wildlife here. Certainly you will see migratory waterfowl stop at Gumbo Sag for a rest on their way south, and back again to their summer homes. You might be fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of endangered species such as piping plovers and whooping cranes.

As you drive past Gumbo Sag on Highway 212 east of Redfield, look carefully. Turtles and ducks may be watching you. And it is almost certain that Harold Brink's family will give you a happy wave.

A CONFUSION OF STONES

You might get confused if you decide to look for a couple of important stones near Redfield, South Dakota.

Redfield is similar to many prairie towns created by the arrival of the railroad, but with a difference. Typically the railroad laid out towns in the shape of the letter-T. Main Street began and ended at the tracks. The railroad formed the cross on the letter-T. Here is the difference. Two railroads crossed at Redfield, one going east to west, the other north to south.

Because of the intersection of the north and south lines with the east and west lines, Redfield became an important subdivision point. It was home base for the construction crews who fanned out from the community to work on the rails. At one point there were five different crews based in Redfield. A crew consisted of one engineer, one fireman, two brakemen, a conductor, and a mail clerk.

The depot at Redfield was manned around the clock during those days. There were two car inspectors, three operators and ticket agents, and two baggage handlers. Over twenty-five maintenance men worked nonstop repairing cars, engines, and tracks. There were two switch crews and four section crews.

A main function of the railway complex in Redfield was the roundhouse. This was located between Eighth Avenue and Commercial Lane on Main Street. The purpose of this facility was to turn the train engines around. The engine would enter the roundhouse and stop on a piece of moveable track. It was then maneuvered around 90 or 180 degrees to face a different direction. The roundhouse was removed in 1956 and Main Street was opened the next year.

Near the old railroad station where U.S. Highway 281 departs Highway 212 and heads south is Saks Restaurant, an excellent location to meet and greet Redfield natives. This dining oasis is a pleasant place to have lunch way out here on the prairie.

Entering Saks you find a bubbling fountain to your right, its arrangement the epitome of subdued elegance. Looking straight ahead to the counter behind which smiles a friendly hostess, you see the wall covered with hanging photos of the proprietor, Stan Schultz. The pictures are large color prints of scenes when Schultz was in the movies, e.g., Dancing With Wolves.

The hostess will seat you in a spacious dining room interrupted by waist-high partitions that give you a sense of intimacy. You can still look around and observe who else is in attendance. Since everyone knows everyone else in Redfield, this renders the restaurant's atmosphere home-like.

You will notice the woodwork is first rate, right up there with pretentious restaurants on Fifth Avenue in New York city. Mr. Terry Taylor does carpentry work in no other manner.

The carpenter is the husband of Kathleen Taylor, the Redfield novelist. She is the author of Funeral Food, Sex and Salmonella, The Hotel South Dakota, Mourning Shift and Foreign Body. Cold Front is scheduled for publication in October 2000. All are set in the mythical town of Delphi, which keeps local readers guessing where it really is located. No doubt about it, Taylor knows the Redfield area and its people very well.

After lunch drive north at the first left turn on Highway 212 as you depart the restaurant eastbound. You will cross a neat little bridge over Turtle Creek and find the city park and National Guard Armory on your right. A little farther on this street and you look left and see The South Dakota Developmental Center which was established by the state legislature in 1899 and opened in 1902. At present there are approximately 196 persons there with developmental

disabilities. It was made of Sioux Falls granite and is the most noteworthy piece of architecture in town. You will think this it looks like a three story medieval mansion. As you drive around the grounds you observe a working farm tended by the Center.

Long years before the steam engine was developed or settlers came to this territory, the area three or four miles north of Redfield was an important Indian village. Nearby atop the highest hill was a circle of stones that served as a meeting place for all the tribes. Here is where chiefs met to hash out differences and make tribal policy. It was similar to Congress meeting in Washington, D.C. Early surveyors called it the Indian Capitol of Dakotas. Today it is called Council Rock. It is not difficult to find, notwithstanding many Redfield residents are unsure of its exact location. They confuse it with the Abbie Gardner monument.

Travel east from the Developmental Center and join U.S. Highway 281 heading north. Go two miles and you will find a plaque honoring Abbie Gardner. The legend inscribed reads: About one mile east of this spot Abbie Gardner was delivered to her rescuers on May 30, 1857, after eighty-three days of captivity among the Sioux Indians following the Spirit Lake massacre in Iowa. This tablet placed by Charlotte Warrington Turner Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution.

An earlier monument was erected. It is a concrete marker four feet tall where Turtle Creek flows into the James River, exactly at the place where Abbie Gardner was released. The monument is in a pasture on a llama ranch. Permission to visit it must be obtained from the property owner.

Spirit Lake massacre was led by a renegade Sioux named Inkpaduta who was avenging his uncle, a chief who had been murdered by two white men. They had invited the chief to go elk hunting and allowed the chief to have the first shot. When the chief stood and aimed his weapon at the elk, he was shot in the back.

Abigail Gardner-Sharp was born 1843 and died 1921. She wrote her memoirs which are available from the Dickinson County Historical Society & Museum, INC. P.O. Box 532, Spirit Lake, IA. 51360. Museum Director: Opal Smith. The title is: History of the Spirit Lake Massacre, by Abigail Gardner-Sharp. It is the true story of Iowa's bloodiest Indian massacre as recorded in 1885 by Abbie Gardner-Sharp, who survived the infamous deed in 1857.

To see Council Rock and visit the llama ranch go north on Highway 281 one more mile until you come to a marker that tells about Council Rock. Turn right on County Road 15, called Two Bridges Road. Cross the railroad tracks and a bridge over the James River. Up the hill on the right is a house. There is where Council Rock is now located. Originally it was 300 feet north across the road from its present location which is in the yard of the county's first school house.

To see a plethora of Indian artifacts, continue east about half a mile and turn right at Two Bridges Llama Ranch and go down their long driveway. The owners sell llamas as pets and for breeding stock. Wool is taken from the llamas by combing, not shearing.

The ranch owner has a pickup truck full of stone axes and three milk buckets full of arrowheads found on the property. The Sioux had a butchering ground near their village. One artifact of particular interest is a stone three inches thick and oval shaped. It is about two feet long by eighteen inches across and concave. The owner turned it up while cultivating his field and found a round stone five inches diameter a couple of feet away. This combination was evidently used to grind or pound food.

He has so many stone axes on the place that he uses them as a border for his flower garden. They are all axes that were discarded by the Sioux. Over the years as the stone axes became dull the Indians made a new ax. There was no practical way to sharpen the old one.

Arrowheads found strewn about are usually slightly misshapen, having been tossed aside while chipping a new one. A single arrowhead found in isolation in perfect shape was probably launched and missed its target.

The owner says all the artifacts collected on the property were exposed on top of the ground following a heavy rain or when snow melted in the spring.

This former butchering ground would be a fertile field for exploration by archeologists or an interested University. All the area in and around Redfield should be examined to learn what we can about how mankind has survived in this region.

Fifty miles north on Highway 281 takes you to Aberdeen. The road is straight as an arrow. You can almost put your vehicle on automatic pilot as you cruise past the same kind of farms we saw between Watertown and Redfield.

Aberdeen, Scotland was the hometown of Alexander Mitchell, president of the Milwaukee Railroad and he naturally named this town Aberdeen when it was founded in 1880. Soon it became known as Hub City because of the network of rail lines that converged here.

Folks living in the six counties we visited drive to Aberdeen to find a mall, a Wal Mart or a medical specialist. It represents what "downtown" did a century ago when you had to drive into the city to find anything.

When we started planning this vacation we wanted something different from the usual theme parks around the country. What we had read and heard about northeast South Dakota won us over and we decided to come here. Now the trip was ending and we were back in Aberdeen ready to turn in the rental car and catch a plane home, so thought it would be nice to see what they have out here on the prairie that resembles Disneyland.

We kept on through Aberdeen on Highway 281 to the northwest side of the city to Storybook Land and visited the Wizard of Oz.

L. Frank Baum who penned this classic children's story lived in Aberdeen from 1888 to 1891.

The ten acre theme park has a farmstead with Dorothy's house, Munchkin Land, Scarecrow's house, Tin Man's house, Wicked Witch Castle and Emerald City. There is also a petting zoo for children.

In addition to the theme park, you may visit the Granary Rural Cultural Center, Dakotah Prairie Museum and Centennial Village while in Aberdeen. The displays in these facilities will bring together all the impressions you gained touring the six counties in northeast South Dakota.

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